Printed Circuit Boards

Just about any electronics product (or more generally any product now on the market) requires a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to house the electronics. A PCB is basically a sheet of non-conductive material and has copper tracks etched onto the sheet. Components are then soldered onto the PCB to mechanically hold them in place as well as to electrically connect them to form the required circuit. Finally the assembled PCB is fixed to a housing, which can made by injection molding or from sheet metal.

Traditionally, ordering a one-off printed circuit board for prototyping was a very expensive practice. Hence, several alternatives to ordering PCB’s were used, for example you can use stripboard (or Veraboard) for soldering, or you can use a modern sophisticated method such as laser copper etching on a piece of paper through a laser printer. In today’s globalized world, however, China (and more generally the Asian region) has made ordering even one circuit board really cheap while the quality remains nothing short of fantastic. If you are looking for a manufacturer to outsource your PCB job, you can take a look at the following companies (some of which can provide a full turn-key contract manufacturing solution as well):